the dungeon one day months from now. He would be the guy she waved at before going back to her friends.
He realized the room had gone super quiet, and when he looked over Theo and Michael were staring at him like he’d grown two heads.
Had he thought having a bunch of brothers would be a good thing? Because right now it kind of sucked. “I’m not going to cry.”
“I don’t know. You kind of look like you’re going to,” Michael said, a note of horror in his tone. “I’m wondering if I can flee the room before the first tear falls. If I make it out before it hits his cheek then I’m not it, right?”
Hutch flipped Michael the bird. “Asshole. I’m not crying and I’m not sitting around listening to sad love songs in my car and then saying it’s all a mistake that the freaking love station is programmed into my satellite radio.”
Michael frowned. “It came with the car.”
Theo put down his controller. “Sure it did. Look, don’t worry about…it’s Noelle, right?”
Hutch nodded. “Yeah. She’s got some mobility issues, and getting attacked in her place of business didn’t help. She usually uses a cane, but she’s been in forearm crutches for a couple of days until her muscles chill out. Normally I wouldn’t worry at all because Noelle’s adaptable, but she doesn’t know this place.”
Michael turned Theo’s way. “Who is he?”
Theo sighed, a long-suffering sound. “He’s who you should have been if you wanted your relationship to work.”
“Ow.” Michael put a hand on his chest as though Theo had wounded him. “But maybe fair. I wasn’t as thoughtful as I should have been.”
“Because you weren’t in love with Tessa and she wasn’t in love with you,” Theo replied. “You were both impatient. You see your brother with his wife and two kiddos and you want that for yourself, but you can’t force it. The same way Hutch can’t force Noelle to see that he’s right for her.”
“I’m not trying to force her to do anything.” He hated this, hated that she was out there and probably looked gorgeous, and he wouldn’t be the man who greeted her. He wouldn’t be able to make sure the man who did treated her with respect. He didn’t have any rights at all where Noelle was concerned and that hurt.
He was a man who’d avoided responsibility for the most part, and now that he wanted it, he couldn’t have it.
“You can’t force her to do anything, but you can make her world so comfortable she doesn’t remember how she got along without you,” Theo advised.
“That’s what I’m trying to do. Kyle’s right. I feed her every day. I watch TV with her. I rub her feet, and every night she runs to her bedroom.”
“She runs to it?” Theo asked.
Hutch nodded. “Yeah. I think she’s afraid I’ll do something I shouldn’t.”
The idea that she might be afraid of him hurt more than anything.
“Or she’s scared she’s going to jump you,” Theo offered. “Does she seem comfortable around you before it’s time for bed?”
“Oh, yeah. She has no problem hanging out with me until Kyle is solidly in his room. Then it gets weird. Even though Kyle pays little attention to us at night. He comes and goes between the living room and his room.” Kyle wasn’t impressed with their taste in TV. He ended up watching sports on his laptop, and Hutch had heard him mention several times that this was a boring-ass assignment when he talked to his brother at night.
Boring was good. Boring was safe. Boring meant no one was shooting at them or choking out Noelle. Boring gave them time to research and try to understand why anyone would want to hurt her.
“Then Kyle’s right and you should be patient. She’s not going to take one look at this Jeffrey guy and forget you exist,” Theo said. “You need to give her a couple of days. The class is once a week, and there won’t be a ton of homework tonight. And hey, you’ll be right there when he comes over to do homework with her. You can scare the crap out of him then.”
Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea. “What am I supposed to tell him? If he comes to her place, we risk him running into the people in the building who believe I’m Noelle’s boyfriend.”
Michael seemed to think about the problem. “This doesn’t work. She can’t take the class while she’s the object of an active investigation.